As August 15 looms into the calendar for the 64th time since Independence, it would be an understatement to say that the nation is passing through an extraordinary phase. All the usual stories of poverty, death, disease, despair, homelessness, malnutrition, exploitation, inequity, inequality, inflation, etc, still populate our front pages as they faithfully have for 63 independence days before.

But you can hear the faint rumblings of something more seismic.

An avalanche of corruption has rumbled across the nation shaking Congress, BJP and Left governments at the Centre and in the States. Week after week, scam after scam of mindnumbing size and scale tumbles out of the vaults and cupboards. Report after report, from the CAG down to the Lok Ayukta—and stricture after stricture from the Supreme Court—sends shivers down the shameful spines of the corrupt and the crooked.

In such choppy waters, the admiral guiding INS India has stood unmoved and unaffected.

Not any more. Three big bandicoots have cruelly chipped and nibbled away at prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s assiduously cultivated image of impeccable honesty and integrity in recent weeks.

# Then, his own cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats, like former telecom minister A. Raja and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, have spoken of how much the PM (and others in the cabinet) knew about the Rs 173,000 crore scam in the allocation of 2G spectrum in which they are disgraced.

# And now, the Commonwealth Games scam has thudded even more dangerously into Manmohan Singh’s court, showing how the PMO looked the other way while Suresh Kalmadi was running riot, with the Delhi government of Sheela Dixit, the sports ministry of M.S. Gill and the urban development ministry of S. Jaipal Reddy for company.

In the midst of all this heavy fire (and the spark of the Lok Pal bill), Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been suddenly rendered hors d’combat, leaving Singh at the mercy of Amar (Janardhan Dwivedi), Akbar (Ahmad Patel), Antony (A.K.Antony)—and Rahul Gandhi—before going off to the United States for treatment.

With Parliament in its monsoon session, this is clearly not what the good doctor would have ordered for Manmohan Singh who somehow survived the S-band scam. Also, with Rahul Gandhi suddenly in charge of the adult Congress, after hand-holding the youth Congress, the writing is on the wall for the old man.

Questions: Will Manmohan Singh survive this session of Parliament? Will he last until 2014? Or is the bell beginning to toll for a change of horse, mid-stream?

7 comments

I have no idea why Churmuri is so much bothered about Manmohan Singh? Who cares about MS!

The question we need to as is- Are we going to survive as a democracy?

Can India go on with this kind of corruption, price rise and perversion in its political establishment?

The CAG report on CWG corruption is amazing. It drives you mad with frustration and disgust. Are we still being ruled by human beings – or are these demons from hell who have arrived to oppress us. Perhaps Churmuri can ask this question in some future poll.

Lets stop being bothered about the likes of MS or Yediruppa. IT is time to focus on ourselves. Me, I, myself – we need to become an “i” nation, like the iPhone.

These politicians mean nothing. They are here only to steal the nation’s wealth and give it to Switzerland, no wonder than the Swiss economy is booming like never before.

I am surprised to see this Article in Churumuri. The nation should have discussed if India will survive. I am writing this on Saturday, by Monday, when the Stock Exchanges reopen all over the world, there will be panic selling. India and former IMF employee and friend of George Bush Manmohan Singh has destroyed Indian Rural economy to help his Foreign (and Indian) speculative investors. Every child knows that a former Finance Minister (not Manmohan himself) is an agent of certain investment groups. And Every child knows that another former Finance Minister (who served before Manmohan) was a CIA man.

It is now becoming more and more clear that we can not do our software export to USA and feed the nation for long, when question marks are raised about the very existence of USA. We can never drive away our 60% working force from Agriculture economy to a pipedream called Software. (Hardly 2% of people are employed in Software-BPO. 9% in apparel. But thee people want us to believe that 65% workforce can be replaced with IT Boom.

The sight of that weak, corrupt, spineless imbecile Manmohan fills me with hatred and disgust. I hope he is not just take out, but is thrown on the streets in a very bad part of Delhi at a very bad time at night. He is absolutely unworthy of the post he holds, having totally failed his duties to the nation.